Washington, DC (March 5, 2009) – FOCUS LLC, a national middle market investment banking firm providing merger, acquisition, divestiture and corporate finance services, announced today that SunGard Public Sector’s K-12 Education business unit has acquired the business operations of Mechanicsburg, PA-based Performance Pathways, Inc. FOCUS represented Performance Pathways as its exclusive advisor in this transaction. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Performance Pathways Inc. is a leading provider of instructional management software for K-12 school districts. Teachers and administrators use Performance Pathways’ tools to access curriculum and assessment information to manage instruction and make data-informed decisions to help improve student achievement. The products are a logical extension of SunGard Public Sector’s PLUS Solutions integrated product suite offered to K-12 school districts.
Frank Lavelle, president of SunGard Public Sector’s K-12 business unit, noted, “Integrating Performance Pathways products with the PLUS Solutions suite will allow SunGard to offer a unique value proposition to our K-12 school district customers — a unified system for student, instructional and financial management. Performance Pathways offers a full cycle of instructional management solutions with proven performance and brings a team with strong domain knowledge to SunGard Public Sector.”
“The combination of an outstanding data-driven decision making solution with one of the leading K-12 systems providers offers the real prospect for driving improved student outcomes,” stated Bill Bavin, a Managing Director at FOCUS and Team Leader of the Education and Human Capital Group, who managed the transaction. “In spite of a challenging economic environment, we expect strong companies to augment their solutions through selective acquisitions. Market leaders like SunGard will continue to innovate through the aggregation of ‘best-of-breed’ solutions like Performance Pathways to diversify their offerings and leverage their scalable platforms.” The sale of Performance Pathways to SunGard represents the fourth transaction by FOCUS this year of a market leading solution to a large strategic buyer.
About FOCUS LLC
FOCUS LLC provides a range of middle market investment banking services with an emphasis on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and corporate finance. FOCUS is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. FOCUS specializes in business units with transactions or revenues in the $5-300 million range, serving entrepreneurs, corporate owners and various types of investors across a broad range of industries, throughout the U.S. and worldwide. FOCUS bankers are seasoned operating and financial executives with extensive transaction experience. Securities transactions conducted by Wm. H. Murphy & Co., Inc. registered Broker Dealer member FINRA/SIPC. For more information on FOCUS, visit www.focusbankers.com/education.